Facebook is cracking down on pages that repeatedly attempt to fool the News Feed algorithm with spammy posts that were created solely to generate responses. The company is reporting that users are getting fed up with these posts because they clog their News Feeds and don’t provide any value.
Facebook considers engagement bait to be a post that encourages Facebook users to like, comment, or share for the sole purpose of boosting the post in other users’ News Feeds. Facebook gives the example of a post asking people to “LIKE this if you’re an Aries!” Another example, you’ve also probably seen because it’s very popular with local news networks are pages prompting people who like their page to “like if you think A will happen, ‘Love’ emoji if B will happen, ‘Wow’ emoji if you think C will happen, ‘Haha’ emoji for D, and so on.”
The bottom line is that any page that encourages people to engage with a post in a way they may not have had they not been prompted will be penalized. The more a page engages is this behavior the bigger the penalties they will receive from Facebook and the more they will see traffic and reach drop.
So far, Facebook’s guidelines a very specific as to what will be affected and what will not be. Facebook does make clear that any legitimate request made in a post won’t be negatively impacted. Examples of this type of post include asking for help, advice, or recommendations. This means you can still help the police circulate a missing child report and ask your friends for travel tips.
If you’ve been providing interesting content that organically receives responses from your audience, this Facebook News Feed algorithm update won’t affect you at all. If you’ve been employing some of the tricks that Facebook is cracking down on, it’s time to step up your game and provide content that matters to those who like your page.
